The emphasis on hardware was stressed in an update on Waymo’s efforts by John Krafcik, Waymo CEO, at an event for media as part of the 2017 North American International Auto Show. With a decked-out Pacifica on stage, he said it took only six months to get the test fleet ready with Waymo’s latest suite of equipment that integrates sensors, radar, and LiDAR for a full 360-degree view of the world, even in inclement weather.

Google has kept the industry speculating about whether it would try to build its own vehicle, but the update confirms the emphasis on taking other companies’ vehicles and outfitting them with Waymo tech. Software is important, but more can be learned by also making some of the equipment under the same roof.

And it can bring down cost. The LiDAR system–a black globe on top of the vehicle–costs more than the minivan itself, Krafcik said. A unit that cost $75,000 a few years ago has come down in price by 90 percent in the Waymo development labs, he said.

Waymo had used a fleet of 50 Roush-built test pods, nicknamed Firefly, to test its autonomous driving technology, but the learning curve will ramp up sharply with the Pacificas on the road, Krafcik said. They will be on public roads in California and Arizona later this month.

The hardware Waymo has developed so far includes three types of LiDAR, both short and long range. The whole sensing package reads the whole landscape around the car and can distinguish if a person is real or an image on a billboard; it can tell which direction the person is facing, and it can see hidden images the eye cannot, even in rain or fog, Krafcik said.